11.23.2016

GUEST ARTICLE FROM RSN: Here's What We Do Now - a Personal Note

Happy Thanksgiving to most, Day of Mourning to Many, and Day of Gratitude to All - Just wanted to make sure I covered all the bases.

My true Thanksgiving will come later to day - I just wanted to make sure that you saw this article that recently appeared in RSN - Reader Supported News.

We can continue to gripe about this bogus election, or we can be materially a part of getting the job done of getting it thrown out - and this time we won't just leave it in the hands of the Subprime Court to make a decision that would curse us as a country for the next four years.

Rather than to go into detail, I'm posting the article - including all the commentaries - in its entirety - you can then take action, as I have, to support making sure this truth gets before our Attorney General, the President and all others who have the right, responsibility and power to stop the madness.

Read it, share it, and take action NOW - before the Oaf takes the Oath of Office.

Stay Blessed &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

Gloria

Investigative reporter Greg Palast. (photo: GregPalast.com)

Here's What We Do Now - a Personal Note

By Greg Palast, GregPalast.com

21 November 16

eing right never felt so horrid.

“This is the story of the theft of the 2016 election.
It’s a crime still in progress.”

So opens my film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

And on Election night I waited for the returns to make a fool of me.

Instead, the returns made the fool a President.

And so, my vacation’s cancelled. My life’s cancelled; that is, a life of anything but sleuthing and exposing the details of the heist of our democracy.

What’s at stake?

No way around it, this is one frightening moment.

Decades of progress created with sweat and determination face destruction. Within the next six months, we may see the Voting Rights Act repealed—and civil rights set back 50 years; the entirety of our environmental protection laws burnt in a coal pit; police cruelty made our urban policy; the Education Department closed to give billionaires a tax holiday; and a howling anti-Semite as White House Senior Counselor.

But the horror we face is countered by this one hard and hopeful fact: Donald Trump did NOT win this election.

Trump not only lost the popular vote by millions — he did not legitimately win the swing states of the Electoral College.

Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Ohio: every one was stolen through sophisticated, and sickeningly racist vote suppression tactics.

If you saw my report for Democracy Now! on election morning, it revealed that Ohio GOP officials turned off anti-hacking software on voting machines, forced Black voters to wait hours in line (while whites had no wait).

And, crucially, I confirmed that purged tens of thousands of minority voters on fake accusations they’d voted twice. I first exposed this bogus double-voter blacklist called Crosscheck, in Rolling Stone. It’s the sick excrescence crafted by Kris Kobach, the Trump transition team's maven who also created the Muslim-tracker software he’s bringing to the Trump administration.

What can we do now?

I have been INUN21 November 16D with requests for my factual reports and findings by media and, most important, the front-line activist groups preparing for the fierce fight to protect our votes. Some examples:

Rev. William Barber of the NAACP filed a suit based in North Carolina, hoping to overturn the Trump "victory" — and protect the tiny margin of the Democrat’s win of the Governor’s mansion. The NAACP cites my discovery of "Crosscheck" — in which North Carolina removed upwards of 190,000 voters on false charges they voted twice.

The Asian-American civil rights group 18 Million Rising has gathered 50,000 signatures to push the Justice Department to investigate my evidence of a massive attack on the Asian-American vote.

They now need my facts.

In Michigan, the ACLU is ready to take action on the purge scheme I uncovered, "Crosscheck," that wrongly gave the state to Trump. In Ohio, voting rights attorney Robert Fitrakis is going into court with evidence, much that I uncovered, of racist voting games — from 5-hour-long lines in Black precincts to shutting off ballot security measures on the voting machines.

The team need my facts.

I expect to be in Washington at the Justice Dept and meeting with civil rights groups in December before the Electoral College meets.

Information—plus film, video, investigative reports

And beyond the voluminous files and confidential documents my team has uncovered that is sought by activists, we are deluged with requests for our film, videos, writings and more.

And now we have US networks, even major comedy shows, asking for our material and, of course, new investigative findings.

Information and facts make a difference

With our investigative reports, with our hard and unassailable evidence, we can challenge the legitimacy of the Trump "election." Most important, we must begin the difficult but necessary work of protecting and restoring voting rights. The 2018 Election — and the threat of more stolen elections — is upon us.

What we need to keep going...

Your extraordinary support and faith in our work funded my film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, which is now more relevant than ever and being seen by ever more audiences.

Now we need your financial support again to keep this fight going. We just did not budget for the GOP's in-your-face steal of the Congress and White House. All our resources went into raising the alarm before the election.

So, now, I have to re-hire the staff, hit the road again. Ohio, North Carolina, Washington DC and who knows where, retain attorneys—and retain our team of technicians from cameramen to outreach organizers.

Be listed as a producer ($1,000) or co-producer ($500) in the credits of the broadcast version of my film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Stay informed and get a signed DVD of my film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a signed copy of the book with the same title or better still - get the Book & DVD combo.

And does an angel have the $8K needed for our Washington work and filming? If so, flap your wings.

I can't thank you enough for all the years of support. Alas... our work is not done.

Greg Palastand the Palast Investigations Team

Comments

We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.

General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.

Yes, Greg Palast (www.gregpalast.com) has been doing great work on this subject for years as has Bev Harris (www.blackboxvoting.org), Brad Friedman (www.bradblog.com), Mark Crispin Miller (www.markcrispinmiller.com), Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman (www.freepress.org).

I keep getting e-mail requests from elected officials with lists of "what we must do now" and see countless articles by so-called liberal journalists along the same lines but…
NO ONE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT THE THEFT OF OUR ELECTIONS!

What the hell is wrong with all of these people?
Are they too stupid or blind to see what has been happening in our elections since 2000 and has only gotten worse each year because nobody is doing anything about it?

We will never have a government "OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE" again if we continue to allow this treasonous theft of our basic freedom to choose our leaders.

The fact that Greg Palast is telling us that all of a sudden media outlets and other groups are interested in his findings is very encouraging!

The MYTH of American elections being fair and honest MUST BE DESTROYED!

Maryland took 9 years to get back to paper ballots. This year the ballots were 100% audited to qualify that the system works. It can be done.

"In 2007, the Maryland General Assembly unanimously decided the state would go back to using paper ballots.

The decision came after concerns from voters that there wasn't a paper trail to verify votes.

Funding for the paper systems became available in October 2014. The contract went before the Board of Public Works two months later and was approved.

According to the State Board of Elections, this system is a voter-verified paper based solution. All marked paper ballots are scanned, and anything outside the of box alerts voters that the ballot needs to be corrected.

Election officials can compare ballots marked by voters with the results if need be, and all paper ballots are stored by the local board of elections for auditing and recounting.

The system was put in place and used in the 2016 primary and general elections."

"Today is an example of how government is supposed to function. Without partisanship and without political advantage," said U.S. Representative Robert Wexler. "Governor Crist and the State Legislature have come together and delivered an election system that is a model for the nation. One person, one vote - guaranteed - with a paper record to prove it."
http://votesmart.org/public-statement/264484/governor-crist-signs-legislation-creating-paper-trail-for-florida-votes#.WDTgePkrKM8

I disagree with one man one vote. There are many opinions written by the "founding fathers" that justify the electoral college you may research on your own. Basically, it gives small states a voice and resists the "tyranny of the majority". Do you really want the leader of ALL the United States to be decided solely by California, Texas and New York? What about Iowa and Missouri? North Dakota? Come on man!

Agree 100%, GLG! I am thrilled beyond words to know that media is requesting facts and data. Maybe, just maybe, they will wake up and start blasting out what has really been happening with our elections at least since 2000. I want this to hit the air and headlines with such force that it will blast herr drumpf right out of the White House, even before he gets in! I live on SS and a small annuity, but you can believe I will send what I can to Palast.

@Lolanne: Sorry but don't hold your breath. Remember "mainstream media" is owned by the same capitalists -- i.e., Nazis -- who own both the Democratic (sic) and Republican parties and 99.99 percent of their politicians.

@glg: The fact "no one wants to talk about" election theft proves beyond argument the criminal complicity of both parties.

It also lends great credence to the ever -more-obvious probability Hillary was the diversionary-candidate from the very beginning -- that the Ruling Class ran Sanders, then stole the nomination from him and gave it to Hillary precisely to guarantee Trump's election.

Why? Think not just Marx, Engels, Trotsky and Lenin but Sun Tzu and Machiavelli: with fully half the nation reduced either to official low-income status or official poverty, its pre-revolutionary anger is fast approaching the explosive transition to revolution per se. Thus the One Percenters and their Ruling Class vassals suddenly need the shortest, fastest route to Nazism -- the only way these predators can protect their power and wealth. Ergo Trump, the first Führer of the USian Empire, literally the Fourth Reich.

We figured on this. We'll pay the price here but there will be less war.

And I agree with Jimmy Dore -- we're supposed to help the DP for 2018 when they just elected Chuck Schumer? Who gives a rat's about the DP? They learned nothing from this election.

loren, if you showed me proof that Clinton was the stalking horse I wouldn't be shocked, but it would be SO macchiavellian! As Radscal has said -- they're not omnipotent. I think Trump was difficult to predict, at least his being able to 'win', and I don't see Hillary being willing to throw it. Though she DID give up awfully easily ....

I think the simpler explanation is that HRC was the objective and TPTB will just threaten Trump and surround him with their tools to steer him.

I wish he had also pointed out the closing of over 700 voting places in Texas, just "coincidentally" they all were in "non-white" voting precincts, the same thing happened in Florida and several other states.

In 2004, Thomas Frank published "What's The Matter with Kansas," a book asking why so many working-class and poor white Americans in the heartland had taken to voting for a party that in both word and deed advanced policies of great value to the rich. In short, the question was: Why were these folks Republicans when Republicans weren't with them?

Look, I voted for Jill Stein. I don't even like Hillary. But if Hillary actually won and Trump gets into office, that is a terrible crime. But what is even worse is the fact that apart from Greg Palast, NO ONE is talking about this. I did a Google search for Trump stealing the 2016 election and Palast's site was the only link that came up! All the other links predated the election and were about Trump's predictions the election would be stolen in Hillary's favor.

Google, along with all the Democratic pols--including Bernie and Hillary, the media, and even the people who are wringing their hands because Hillary lost and a misogynistic crazy person won are saying nothing about ELECTION FRAUD. What is this conspiracy of silence in this country? Is it un-American to question the validity of our election results? Is this terribly corrupt and intentionally flawed system so hallowed that it can't be investigated for criminal behavior?

Why, in this nation where we still do have demonstrations against climate change and pipelines and cops getting away with murder and even against Donald Trump himself, do we never have demonstrations against the stealing of elections? Why do we just go silent? Where are all the pundits now that we need them? Where do they all go? This to me is even more sinister than the actual theft, because it represents the entire ruling class on "both" sides.

About 12 years ago I had a face to face discussion with a liberal Democrat sitting member of Congress.
We discussed the theft of the 2004 Presidential vote in Ohio and the ever emerging proof that our elections are fraudulent.
This elected member of the House of Representatives acknowledged that the Democratic Party KNEW that vote counts were being manipulated!

When I demanded an answer as to why nothing was being done about it the reply stunned me:
"Because if the American people knew that then they would not bother to vote!"

The Democratic party is locked into a blind mindset of denial, defeat and corruption as demonstrated by their act of shoving Clinton down our throats!
We can never achieve real representative governance as long as this abomination continues!

Trump was engaging in a diversionary tactic of accusing the other side of the theft he was involved in committing.
For years the Republicans have been using the myth of "Voter Fraud" as a smokescreen for their election theft.
This is nothing new!

Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others

Fitrakis and Wasserman at columbusfreepress.com have independent information. There is an article on Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/fair-election-serious-hard-explain-questions-arise-about-trump-vote-totals-3-key

Moxa, strange that this one didn't also come up: http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/40381-how-the-gop-flipped-and-stripped-yet-another-american-election.
And there's even a third one I've read posted on something called the Palmer Report, though I haven't been able to verify whether this is a legitimate site. Whether it is or not, though, his piece says essentially the same things as the other two.
And yes, it desperately NEEDS to be investigated thoroughly and the perpetrators prosecuted. This kind of crap has been happening at least since 2000.

When Der Drumpfkopf/ i.e., Trumpolini whined and whined that if he did not win, the election was 'rigged', he was just engaging in his usual projection.
But in fact, the election WAS rigged, by Trump and his morally bereft minions! to elect Trump through fraud, and cheating, and stealth.

Here in Wisconsin, a sea of red engulfed the state except for the predictable blue bastions of Madison and Milwaukee and two tiny azure entities... Bayfield county on the shores of Lake Superior, and my own little rectangle of Eau Claire County where we are squeaky-clean in election procedures.

I've worked the polls for the last ten years, same-day registering new voters, overseeing the electronic machine (with paper trail) and checking photo IDs as voters sign in on the poll books to get their ballots. "Rs" and "Ds" jointly and amiably rotate in pairs through all the procedures and sign off together on tabulated results.

Dear Ray Kondrasuk: You may THINK that the system works in your polling place but if you are using electronic machines how do you really know?
Are the paper trails audited to see if they match the black box results?
Have they been hand counted with observers from each side watching?
Have exit polls been taken and do they absolutely match the results?

The ONLY way we know for sure is to return to a completely open system of hand counted paper ballots with vigorous exit polling and major scrutiny if the exit polls are off by as much as 2%.

Good questions, GLG. Electronic voters using the EDGE machine see a printed roll-out of their choices alongside the touchscreen. They review it and hit the final "Cast your ballot" spot only if they agree.

We had a very close state supreme court election several years ago; close enough to trigger a recount. Those printed rolls were retrieved, put on spindles, and cranked through the watchful gaze of both Ds and Rs as two scribes noted the count.

Exit polls.... I haven't the first-hand knowledge to reply. But thanks for your concern.

What about the people thrown off the rolls before the election? They were mostly minority who most likely would have gone for Clinton. There are so many ways to cheat and they don't all occur on election day.

Sure would be nice if there were a foolproof way to do it: If the questions of local, state, and national concern interest you, vote on them. If not, go your merry way. We'd have government by those who are interesteed enough to bother to vote, but without all the self-serving politicians.

Alas, however, we'd still need to choose SOMEONE at every level to execute the things we voted for.... It never ends, does it?

Floe, have you read anything you could cite about creating a digital democracy? I'd like to have a look, if you have.

When Al Gore's election was stolen I was livid because, even from my perspective in front of a TV screen, it was clear that the Dems sat on their hands and let Gore twist in the wind while the Repukes were out in force, banging on doors, having tantrums, yelling and screaming at vote counters, and generally raising hell. Through all the chaos created Repukes got their way and the election was called for Shrub. Now I'm seeing the same thing with the Clintonistas. . . just sitting by and saying nothing about another stolen election. The Dems are wimps. They dare not risk anything. For Repukes, risk is their middle name and look how they benefit from it. I am livid again--at the Party that will not rise in its own defense and take on the liars and cheaters. Of course, the party has its own problem with lying and cheating, but that only occurs within the primary election with the party's pre-selected candidate. Well, Dems, hope you're proud of your accomplishment of turning the country over to the Trump Gulag! Bernie would have won by a margin large enough that even the cheating wouldn't have been enough.

That is probably the actual answer to my question why nobody talks about this. The Dems are corrupt too and don't want the skeletons removed from their own closets. The system is so corrupt there is no one left to expose it. The mainstream media won't touch it so there are only a few of us on the extreme fringes talking about it.

There is plenty of reason to be afraid, but I think it is past time to ramp down the rhetoric of fear.

A little fear may paralyze people, or it may spur them to ill-considered action as it did on 9/11/01 and on 11/9/16. A little more fear may lead to more constructive action, or it may deepen the paralysis.

But we all know what is happening, myriad reasons to be fearful, and myriad possibilities to be afraid of. At this point, we need careful thought and planning a lot more than we need to be told there is need for fear. At some point even more people become paralyzed, and rational action becomes even more difficult.

Popular Resistance (popularresistance.org), one of several active spinoffs from the Occupy movement, is a good source for information and inspiration, with a well-written weekly newsletter.

I hope that people wil respond to Greg’s request for financial help. But I also hope that they will remember to make a contribution to RSN as well. Marc brought us this article from Palast so that we would be informed!!

We need to enforce section 2 of the 14th Amendment. Those states which have had their voter ID laws and redistricting plans thrown out in Federal Court should have their congressional representation reduced (I'd like to see to the bare minimum of 3) and therefore reduce their representation in the Electoral College. Since it is probably too late for reapportionment--the electors in these states should be required to vote for the national winner or not vote at all.

As I sit here reading this, I can't help but be extremely frustrated by the fact that there seems to be little effort made by the author and others involved in the write-up to provide facts that the Democratic nomination was also stolen.

To put forth such energy which could, in essence, award the Presidency to a different person, when that very person was ALSO the beneficiary of election-theft, and not put forth the same energy, time and resources to ensure that both political parties are exposed for their theft and complete lack of regard for the voter's will, seems like a big slap in the face to those of us who were seriously looking forward to having the first ethical President in decades. (Sanders, of course.)

We have one important tool for keeping track of our votes--the cell phone camera, which was disallowed in many states. I voted by mail and copied my ballot, but people in the voting booth weren't able to make their own record in many cases. Why? We weren't making selfies. We just wanted to make our own records because we knew what was coming.

TPTB indeed know that the day of reckoning is here. We make our own videos and photos, and can send them around the world, so the whole world's watching.

THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.